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Castagna often holds wine tastings, pairing Giuinott with Piedmont’s Vermouth wines and other sweet alcoholic drinks like passito, which he believes complements the chocolate tasting experience. They’re Piedmont’s gold, absolutely the best in the world,” he adds, before explaining that the hazelnuts are priced at €16 per kilogram versus €10 per kilogram for high quality cocoa.
A six-times gold medal winner at the International Chocolate Awards, an independent competition recognizing excellence in fine chocolate making, Giuinott comes in a glossy copper-colored wrap. It had humble origins but then became an elite, niche product of the highest quality, the first ever to be wrapped [in foil] in the history of chocolate.” To create gianduiotti, they press the gianduia mix into lasagne-like sheets. These sheets are then shredded and beaten into a paste on an old granite basin, just like those used in the past, says Faletti.The Gianduiotto chocolate is made with a chocolate and hazelnut paste, the gianduja paste, and is wrapped in aluminum foil to improve its preservation. The Gianduiotto or Giandujotto is a typical Italian chocolate from Piedmont immediately recognizable by its famous upturned boat shape.
We are the only ones who still hand make gianduiotti. It’s very expensive to employ such skilled labor,” says owner Laura Faletti. Davide Appendino, another top Turin chocolatier, uses a wide array of top quality biological cacao beans to make pistachio, coffee, white chocolate, dark chocolate and sugar free gianduiotti sold in colorful wraps. The secret of the craft, says Nobili, lies in the firm and rapid movement of the wrists and hands to scoop up the paste before it solidifies, smooth it over with spatulas and give it final cut with a butter knife to achieve the prism-like shape.
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It’s a job only women can do, for it requires a lot of passion, patience and precision. A bit like hand stitching. It can be quite tiresome, I need to rotate my gianduiere in shifts otherwise their hands get muscle cramps.” After mixing them with sugar and the very little cocoa they still had on their shelves, they were able to create a rich paste that was eventually refined and honed into gianduiotto. Gianduiotto was originally born out of necessity – to overcome a cocoa shortage in mainland Europe. According to revered artisan chocolatier Guido Castagna, gianduiotto is far more than just an iconic chocolate. It’s a symbol of Turin, and a big part of the city’s identity. Turin's love for chocolate runs so deep it's no wonder locals found a way to blend it with their coffee. The city is home to il bicerin, a velvety beverage made from hot chocolate, espresso and whipped cream. It is said to be have been invented in 1763 at a shop by the same name. It's best to enjoy a nice cup of bicerin after you've taken a stroll through Via Roma and the nearby Turin Cathedral ( Duomo di Torino).
The most savory artisan gianduiotti are those with the highest percentage, usually between 25 and 40%, of hazelnuts. The idea of mixing hazelnut pieces to "standard" chocolates is said to have arisen during Napoleon's reign, when importing cocoa from South America became difficult. With "raw" cocoa's high prices, local producers started incorporating bits of roasted hazelnuts (which were locally grown and readily available in Piedmont) to make the final product more affordable. Gianduiera Ambra Nobili, 32, has been making A. Giordano’s gianduiotti ever since she graduated from a local pastry academy. A century or so later, Pietro Ferrero, a confectioner from Piedmont, created Nutella based on that old recipe. Now there’s just one left – the A.Giordano boutique. Only a handful of gianduiere remain at the historic chocolate lab, which was founded in 1897.
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In Piedmontese, the Gianduiotto chocolate is called Giandojòt – international phonetic alphabet [ʤandʊ’jɔt], – and it is one of the traditional agri-food products recognized by law by the Ministry for agricultural food and forestry policies.
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